I am your typical guy that loves looking at hot women in films, especially when they are looking sexy with as little clothes on as possible. I mean what else are actresses like Jessica Simpson, Jessica Alba and Beyonce Knowles good for? However I also enjoy a woman that likes to kick ass and chew bubble gum, hopefully she is all out of bubble gum. Over the past 20 years of cinema history there have been some women that are just as tough as any male character in films, I mean girls that just make you think "damn I wouldn't want to mess with her." Here is a look at my top 10 toughest female characters.
10. Actress : Lucy Liu Character : Agent Sever
Lucy Liu is just about an ass kicker in everything she's in, just usually in a comical way. In Ballistic: Ecks Vs. Sever its a VERY different story. Liu plays Agent Server, a rogue DIA agent who must team up with her mortiferous lifelong enemy Agent Jeremiah Ecks (Antonio Banderas) to defeat a common enemy.
Besides having the normal martial art skills that Liu's characters are always familiar with (is that because she is Chinese?) she also uses a wide range of state of the art machine guns including the P90 5.7mm machine gun and a mounted .50 caliber machine gun that most women would have a hard time handling.
9. Actress : Angelina Jolie Character: Jane Smith
Although I am not a huge fan of Mr. & Mrs. Smith, I must say that Jolie kicked major ass as Jane Smith. Jane and John Smith are a married couple who think they have a pretty normal life. Both are assassins but neither person is aware that their mate is in the same profession. When they find out about each other they quickly start a cat and mouse chase to take one another out. Jane is just as good if not better then most male eliminators. She fights and handles weapons like Rambo with nothing but intent on taking out her target.
8. Actress : Patricia Tallman Character : Barbara
If all I had to go on was Judith O'Dea's "Barbara" performance from the 1968 version of Night Of The Living Dead then I would even shoot myself for thinking that she was a tough chick. More like the top 10 women basket case characters. However in the remake Barbara has been redefined. It would be a highly stressful and scary situation to have zombies trying to kill you but somehow she manages to change from an everyday housewife type to a killer. Barbara makes a stand to the other characters in the film telling them that they can make it past the ghouls to safety, in fact she is one of the only ones that isn't scarred to go outside of the house. Then to test how REALLY tough you, she is forced to kill her own brother (which now is a zombie) but that is still a hard shot to take while you look into the eyes of a loved one.......she keeps it real though and sends him to his eternal resting place.
7. Actress : Melanie Griffith Character : Edith 'E.' Johnson
If you have never seen this movie (which most have not,) then you are probably saying to yourself "Melanie Griffith is kick ass?" The answer is not most of the time but back in 1987 she did kick ass one time. Cherry 2000 is a futuristic sci-fi / action film that follows a man in search of his long lost sex robot. He decided to have relations with her in a bathtub and it short circuits her / kills her so he needs to find the exact make and model so he can have his sweetie back again. The problem is the only one he can locate is in a hostile area controlled by guerillas.
What are you going to do if your a wussy and you need your sex robot? Get yourself a tracker, the best tracker E. Johnson. Griffith is as tough as they come physically and mentally. She rides around in a tricked out classic Mustang with enough firepower inside to take out a small country. She is basically a female Commando with just one weakness....she has girl feelings and starts to fall in love. BLAH!
6. Actress : Patricia Arquette Character : Alabama Worley
In True Romance Patricia Arquette as Alabama Worley exemplifies a bad ass woman. Living her life mostly as a white trash whore, she meets Clarence the one person that wants to make a good life for her. After falling in love within 24 hours of meeting, they quickly marry and start their new life together. Do you remember the ass whopping that she takes for Clarence and the cocaine? She is beaten up by James Gandolfini (freakin Tony Soprano) so bad that you even start to feel sorry for a made up movie character, and she still never talks. Then she stabs him with a Swiss army knife, hits him with the lid of a toilet and sets him on fire to then use his own shotgun on him viciously. She is definitely the girlfriend I would want if I were trying to turn a big drug deal or to kick bad guys ass's.
5. Actress : Michelle Rodriguez Character : Rain Ocampo
Although not the star of the film, Michelle Rodriguez without a doubt plays the toughest soldier in Resident Evil. Rodriguez has that natural bad ass complexion in just about every film she is in. Specifically as the character of Rain Ocampo she proves that even infected psychopaths trying to murder her is no threat. I guess we will find out if she is tough in real life as she started a 6 month prison sentence on Christmas Eve of 2007. Michelle was sentenced for violating her probation and driving under the influence. I got a nickel's worth of advice for you Michelle......Don't drop the soap! Well I guess that doesn't work for women.
4. Actress : Hilary Swank Character: Maggie Fitzgerald
In Million Dollar Baby Maggie Fitzgerald is probably the toughest all around character from this list. Not only is she physically a beast but also mentally unyielding with the constant harassment she receives from other training MALE boxers. Nobody wants anything to do with her from a boxing standpoint and really anything at all. Even after she is a successful boxer her mother laughs and ridicules her saying that people laugh about her being a fighter. This line says it all Maggie Fitzgerald: "I saw your last fight, Shawrelle. Spent so much time face down I thought the canvas had titties." Hilary Swank has played a few characters to get their ass beat on screen and she takes it like a champ.
3. Actress : Sigourney Weaver Character : Ellen Ripley
Ellen Ripley was a strong character in Alien but what I think is different about her in the second film Aliens is that she is tired of fearing the creatures and even though she is scarred shitless of them she conquers her fear by facing them. Being the only survivor of The Nostromo (an M-Class starfreighter) from Alien she is awakened to the horror that aliens may have found a colony living on planet LV-426. Marines want her to go and at first she is reluctant because she realizes that she was LUCKY to have survived the first encounter with them, however she is mentally unstable and decides in order to put this behind her that she will do it.
Ripley ends up having to take control of the whole operation as the marines are almost all wiped out and the lieutenant is a young inexperienced leader with many flaws. What makes her so tough to me is one scene towards the end when she has the opportunity to leave the planet and escape unharmed but this woman turns around and goes back for somebody else's kid! I would have been like "sorry Newt see ya ass later" while I was running towards the ship!
2. Actress : Juliette Lewis Character : Mallory Knox
The title is Natural Born Killers and thats exactly what this character is. Where to begin with Mallory Knox. I know for sure out of this whole list she is the one I would NOT want to fight. Towards the beginning of the film when she beats the ever living shit out of the diner patron you know right off that this girl is not to be messed with. She then taunts the crippled man saying "How sexy am I now, huh? Flirty boy! How sexy am I now?" Doing all of this while L7's song Shitlist plays in the background. "When I get mad...And I get pissed...I grab my pen And I write out a list....Of all the people That won't be missed.........You've made my shitlist!"
She is a bad bitch! She is the girl that you love to love because of how bad she is. She even helps murder her own parents! If I were anywhere close to Knox then I would unconditionally make sure to avoid being number one on her shit list.
1. Actress : Linda Hamilton Character: Sarah Conner
From Terminator to Terminator 2 : Judgment Day we see Sarah Connor go from a confused, shielded almost helpless victim to a full blown warrior. It is almost hard to believe it is the same person. From manning weapons to beating up prison guards, Connor is relentless in her quest to stop the Terminator and protect her son. I mean come on who else could stand the T-1000's ice pick hand digging through their shoulder and still not talk. Then afterwards blast them a way with a 12 gauge pump, while only using one hand to cock it.
Honestly who owns a shotgun that has not tried that same stunt? I know I have!!! Connor has been running for years, she is deemed insane, has no support from anyone and everyday lives in fear yet her determination to prevail never dies. She is a true bad ass woman!
The Ending:
I had the easiest time writing the last three toughest women, as soon as I had the idea for this column in my head they are who immediately popped into my mind. I know that I have missed some other great women characters that deserve to be mentioned but after all this is MY top 10 list!
Here are a few more of honorable mention:
Jenette Goldstein (click) as Pvt. Vasquez from Aliens
Angelina Jolie (click) as Laura Croft from Tomb Raider
Cynthia Rothrock (click) as Terry from No Retreat, No Surrender 2
Summer Glau (click) as River from Serenity
Michelle Yeoh (click) as Yu Shu Lien from Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
 email this column to a friend
Comment on this Column:
Sorry, you must be a member to add comments to columns.
Join or Login. |
 Subscribe to MatchFlick Movie Reviews through RSS
|
| MatchFlick Mayhem |
Every other Saturday
This column explores every aspect of the film business from a true fanboy's perspective.
|
| Tim Malcolm |
Tim Malcolm got his first job at a movie theater in 1996 working as a projectionist. He quickly learned that there was no better job then getting paid to watch movies. Since then he has been an advid film watcher, collector, critic and writer.
|
| Contact |
If you have a comment, question, or suggestion, you can send a message to Tim Malcolm by clicking here.
|
|
